PRINCELINESS IN GOD'S FAMILY
E.T.Maynard
I want to say a few simple words on the way things are to be maintained, because I do not think there is a soul here who would not want to have things reached and maintained. The maintenance is the test - how things are going to be maintained. I refer to two features here in this short scripture; the family, and what is princely.
There is no doubt that our dispensation began with princes. Those persons mentioned at Antioch were princes. You will remember that God took delight in the princes when they brought their dedication-offerings to Moses in Numbers 7 - when they approached with their offerings, Jehovah said, "Take it of them" (v.5). There were twelve of them meaning that love was at its best and that, administratively, it was to be maintained on that level. Twelve princes, "each prince on his day" (v.11).
I trust the Lord will help us to promote amongst us what is princely in relation to the family of God, because things are to be maintained on that level. God, from His side, win see to it that there will be no lack. The people lacked nothing from God's side during those forty years in the wilderness - there was abundant supply in view of continuance (Deut 29: 5).
Ezra evidently wrote this book from which we have read. He was with Nehemiah in the matter of recovery, and things were recovered. Ezra starts his book with Adam. Stephen went back to Abraham to emphasize the greatness of the call, but Ezra goes back to Adam. He begins with Adam - and he goes right through. He leaves out certain persons in the genealogy, but certain persons you do not hear about elsewhere are brought in abruptly. But to speak of these persons of whom we have read, it says, "Ziza the son of Shiphi, the son of Atlon, the son of Jedaiah, the son of Shimri, the son of Shemaiah: these mentioned by name were princes in their families; and their fathers' houses increased greatly". I would just encourage each brother and each sister to desire to be princely in our families. What a family this is! The local meetings will be prospered and the Lord will help us if we seek to be princely. Princes are magnanimous persons. Mr Taylor made much of this feature of magnanimity, beginning with God Himself, but seen reflected in princes.
A prince is a person who thinks in the level of magnanimity - large heartedness. There were twelve princes who offered, as we have noted, and wonderful enough Judah offered first, but then there were twelve, each one offering the same thing on his day. It is wonderful how God provides a day for each prince - each prince can have his day. Nobody is in anyone else's way; perfectly ordered; perfectly organised; perfectly sustained under the hand of Moses - Christ, typically - and each prince had his day.
So you get the similar thought here in recovery - the princes and their families. Each prince would be thinking of his family, how the family is to be maintained; not just enough to carry through, but this idea of magnanimity is in the prince's mind; things are to be abundant. So, beloved brethren, God has provided us with the wherewithal at the present time in the midst of ruin, outwardly, each prince in his family. The results were that their fathers' houses increased greatly. And then they went to the entrance of Gedor, as far as the east side of the valley to seek pasture for their flocks. That is what we need. How are the saints going to be fed? How are they going to be maintained and led and preserved in order that the service of God may be enhanced and enriched?
We begin with the family idea - each a prince in his family. We want to be that - a prince in the local assembly. It is open to every brother and sister, not merely persons who serve. Service is a means to an end; service has in view that every brother ,and every sister be brought on to the divine level. That is the mind of heaven. We need to think about this more .
The pasture, it says, was on the east side of the valley, the side of the sunrising - wonderful thought! We are told that God "makes his sun rise on evil and good", Matt 5: 45. The shining of the sun has to do with the maintenance of verdure and many kinds of life. It was on the east side of the valley that they found pasture: "And they found fat and good pasture, and a land widely extended and quiet and fertile, for they who had dwelt there formerly were of Ham". That means that the man that did not appreciate what these pastures suggest was removed. But these princes - persons whom God has in mind to maintain - enter upon this environment with its rich supply; they take over.
We need to see that in the midst of ruin there would be no place for the Lord amongst persons who do not care about Him, but in those very conditions He finds a home where princely family conditions exist, where He can come as the sun rising in its strength, and find satisfaction for His heart. Ham had been there on the east side of the valley where perhaps the sun had been shining at its brightest, but he had no appreciation of such conditions, but these princes had the secret, the princes knew where to find pasture for the maintenance of the family.
I thought, beloved brethren, that we should seek to promote amongst us this princeliness, that the people of God may be fed, led and preserved so that what has been secured at such cost in the recovery may be maintained in the dignity of the mind of heaven for us to the end. May it be so.
BOOKLYN NY
13 February 1973